When you are starting your business there are so many things to consider.  Your business plan, target market, logo, website, prices…and the list goes on.  You may just want to get your website up as soon as possible.  But it is important to stop and consider your keywords before you start your website.  Determining the keywords you want to target will help you with the layout of your site, as well as the content.  You really want to spend some time doing the research, so you do not have to go back and make a bunch of changes down the road.

Keywords are the key (ha, ha, get it?) to SEO.  The whole goal of optimizing your website is for your site to show up when certain targeted keywords are searched for.  So how can you optimize your site if you do not know what words you want to optimize for?  Spend some time brainstorming.  Think about your business, who is your target market?  How does your target market think?  If you were your ideal customer, what would you type into the search engine?  Start making a list of as many keywords as you can think of.

The next step is to do a little research (or have your VA do it) on that list of words.  You can use Wortracker or Google Adwords, both free services that suggest keywords, as well as show you the search volume and more.  Your best bet is to be as specific as possible.  You want the most targeted visitors as possible.

For example, you have an online candle business.  Now, the keyword candle or candles has 4,090,000 monthly searches.  That is a huge number!  And this search includes people search for everything from candle making to candle safety to decorative candles.  And the competition is very high for this keyword.  So, you want to be more specific, and use say soy candles.  Then go even further and specify soy candle votives or scented soy candles.  Can you see where I am going with this?  You want to find very specific keywords related to your business and target market.  You do not need someone looking for candle making to end up on your site.  You want the person who is searching for soy candle votives, which is exactly what you sell!

Keywords are so important for optimizing your website, and should be researched and considered carefully as you are planning and building your site.  You want to use your keywords in the page titles, the headers, and the content.  Keep in mind, your content must be good, make sense and grab your visitors – but should also include your keywords.  Take the time to do your keyword research at the beginning of your planning and you will be glad you did!